On the Blog

Featured Commentary

An African-American professor who has spent her life building bridges across racial divides questions whether she can continue knowing that four out of five white Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump.

On the Blog

From an eloquent and soul-touching tune, to testaments of moving forward from complex suffering, our executive editor shares demonstrations of the boundless and surprising bravery of which we are all capable.

How do you know when it's time to say goodbye? For pets and people both, it’s not always clear when the time has come. Jane Gross on watching her dog die and reckoning with the decision of when to let go.

Each year in New York during the marathon, an intimate gathering of Holocaust survivors come together. A tapestry of memory unfolds, telling the powerful stories of the survivors and the courageous people who protected them.

We often talk about breaking bread around the dinner table, but what about baking bread in community. A young woman shares her encounter with making challah, reconnecting to tradition through intimacy, and reimagining ritual in a secular age.

Presidential politics and front-running candidates are prompting some Americans to ask the question, "Where would I move to?" Omid Safi prompts another kind of reckoning — of an America yet that has yet to be.

What happens when we go too far in pushing against the "other" — whether in asserting our identity or in protecting ourselves from danger? Reminders that we must also open ourselves to the vulnerability of acknowledging our dignified differences and common ground.

Our names are rife with meaning, stories we claim and others we discard. Listen to this group of "audio selfies," including one with Parker Palmer, exploring how our identity is formed by the names we're given, the ones we take, and the ones we long for but never quite materialize.

Our sense of connection to each other can feel lost, but support and goodwill come to the fore when we need it most. Returning from a mournful period of loss, our executive editor shares his wonder at the spaces in our lives where the warmth of kinship and community still shine through.

The lingering pain of a traumatic history can create a sense of helplessness. But, reflecting on her family's suffering during the Holocaust, Sharon Salzberg realizes our redemptive agency in forming the path we take forward.

"Why did you stay?" A brave woman recounts her own encounter with domestic abuse and unravels the complexity of human relationships — of love and loss, of violence and tenderness, of the vicious cycles we sometimes can't extract ourselves from.

A mentor-mentee relationship, like any good one, requires commitment, openness, and honesty. Courtney Martin gives counsel on building relationships of mutual joy and learning with those in our lives whom we admire.

The spiritual life of Black Lives Matter activists is rarely covered. An illuminating profile of Patrisse Cullors on the spiritual work of social change and "her dedication to radical healing, spiritual practice and self-care."

Lives are so well-planned that we tend to focus on the destination. But what if we thought in terms of trajectory? A nuanced perspective on learning to see your grown-up children as independent adults who thrive and persevere.

Trauma can be a rigid dictator of the course of a life, often giving rise to paths of destruction and illness. Dr. Robert Ross on why these cycles exist, and on our responsibility as members of the community to heal the broken spaces in the structures we live in.

The love that siblings share is complex, and something that perhaps only they can understand. Jane Gross with a note of appreciation, frustration, perplexity, and profound love for her little brother — and the wayward path they've walked together.